Granted, the number of people that lead lives where a splash-proof phone is a necessity is limited - and as such, most people tend to merely glance at handsets which are typically a little larger, a little tougher and a lot uglier than your average phone. That said, they do have a purpose to fulfill, and Siemens' last-year model, the M65, did better than most in that respect - and now, its successor looks poised to improve on a good recipe.
It's not exactly a looker, but the Siemens M75 does at least not look quite as bad as your average rugged handset of yore. At 111 x 52 x 21 mm and 110 g it's relatively large, but not too heavy, and gives off a feel of being a trusty companion whether you're scraping muck or going to spring break (the latter of which I'd recommend against, since it afflicts a rather considerably sized bulge to ones pants).
Dust, splash and shock resistant, the M75 is protected by an integrated aluminum frame with solid rubber cushions on the sides of the casing. The lens of the integrated 1.3 Megapixel camera on the back is also protected by a removable rubber seal, and according to Siemens the phone has also been designed to prevent scratches and breaking of the spacious 262K colour screen with excellent display qualities and a resolution of 132 x 176 pixels.
A tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz handset, the M75 is equipped with GPRS but not EDGE, offering comprehensive messaging support courtesy of SMS, MMS and e-mail as well as Internet and WAP browsing courtesy of the WAP 2.0 compliant microbrowser. Other connectivity includes USB, Infrared and Bluetooth, as well as an RS-MMC memory card expansion slot for which the M75 comes bundled with a 32 MB card.
There's still more, however, as the M75 also offers up MP3 and AAC playback, coupled with the ability to both record and play back video courtesy of its integrated 1.3 Megapixel camera. Incidentally, the rubber seal protecting the lens appears to lock solid into place - but don't expect to go swimming with the M75 any time soon, though. Certified according to the IP54 standard, you should be able to get away with a quick submersion of an M75 or even dropping it from a couple of meters or more above ground; good enough for most people, methinks.
According to Siemens, the M75 will offer up to 250 hours of standby time and up to 300 minutes of talk time when it arrives some time in the second quarter; unfortunately, the maker has not commented on its expected pricing.
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